The Irish low-cost airline, Ryanair, announced on 19 January that it plans "the largest ever summer flight schedule from Ukraine" in 2022.
According to the air carrier, it plans to operate 13 new routes (90 in total) from Ukraine to Europe’s most popular destinations in 2022, the CFTS portal reports.
Ryanair will add the following new routes to its summer flight schedule:
From Kyiv: Brussels-Charleroi, Corfu, Stockholm-Arlanda;
From Lviv: Barcelona, Brussels-Charleroi, Gdansk, Nuremberg, Stockholm-Arlanda, Zagreb;
From Odesa: Brussels-Charleroi, London-Stansted, Venice Marco Polo;
From Kherson: Warsaw-Modlin.
According to the airline, the expansion of the route network was made possible by the signing of an Open Skies agreement between the European Union and Ukraine.
"In In response to the signing of the Open Skies Agreement, we are pleased to publish our largest summer schedule in Ukraine, offering our customers more than 230 weekly flights on 90 routes, including 13 new ones, such as Corfu, Gdansk, London, Nuremberg and Venice, Warsaw and others… The unification of the EU and Ukraine airspace will open the way for us to potentially base aircraft in Ukraine after 210 Gamechanger aircraft are delivered in the coming years,” Ryanair’s Commercial Director Jason McGuinness said.
As reported earlier, Ryanair’s head Michael O'Leary announced in an interview in September 2021 that the airline could base up to 20 aircraft in Ukraine in the near future. O'Leary told investors in September 2021 that Ryanair was planning an aggressive expansion in Ukraine if the country joined the European Union's Open Skies deregulated aviation market in the coming months. According to him, there are as many as 12 suitable airports in the country.
